The Loss and Recovery of Transcendence

Endorsements & Reviews-

"Robertson has given us a timely and readable gem: an account of what may well be the number one direction in religious thinking since Nietzsche."-- Ben F. Meyerauthor of 'The Aims of Jesus'

"This is a deep and powerful book. Its theme is the loss of the sense of the presence of God in our culture. The book reflects on this loss in conversation with leading European and North American thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. "Robertson succeeds in conceptualizing the great movements of thought of our time and illuminating them critically in their different characteristics. 'Scientific objectivism' and 'emancipatory subjectivism' become recognizable both in their opposition and in their relative affinity. They are grasped as two movements which have served to shut down our access to the Transcendent. "The book's real contribution however is not only diagnostic. In Gadamer, Whitehead, Lonergan, and some other leading contemporary thinkers, Robertson points to another, a broader way of thinking, which opens up a new access to the experience of the Transcendent and to the Knowledge of God. The book represents a programmatic attempt to overcome the traditional 'theism of dominance and control' and at the same time to make possible a new way of thinking about God. This new representation can take into account not only premodern but also postmodern consciousness."-- Michael Welkerauthor of 'The Work of the Spirit: Pneumatology and Pentecostalism'

"In this commendably wide-ranging study, John Robertson provides a magisterial account of the major factors in modern analytic, scientific, and existential understanding that have led to growing rejection of belief in the reality of God. At the same time he outlines a convincing case for affirming belief in God when, in ways that he indicates, the logical status and content of such belief are properly appreciated. This perceptive work deserves to be widely read and carefully mused over."--David A. Pailinauthor of 'Probing the Foundations: A Study in Theistic Reconstruction'

Contributors-

John C. Robertson

Bio(s)-

John C. Robertson is Professor Emeritus at the McMaster University Department of Religious Studies, Hamilton, Ontario.